Broken Hill

It took us 3 days to get from Yamba, on the NSW north coast, to Broken Hill, in the state's far west. This is the first time we have driven that many days in a row, in fact there's only been a couple of times in the whole trip that we only spent a single night in a place. The first 2 days were fairly tiring driving, as we crossed over several mountain ranges, but the last 750km or so were much flatter and straighter as we started to get into the outback. We decided we needed a good break after this effort, so we have spent a couple of days at Broken Hill recovering.

About two years ago we spent nearly a week in Broken Hill, so we had pretty well already done most of the tourist attractions and walks the town and surrounding region has to offer. But not to despair, the Broken Hill golf course is surprisingly good quality, with well grassed fairways and good greens, so we played golf both days. Other than that we revisited a couple of town lookouts and spent some time browsing through one of the many art galleries here. Unlike some other mining towns, Broken Hill is keenly aware that eventually the mine will close, and they are trying very hard to ensure the local economy has other planks. Pro Hart and some of his contemporaries became famous in Australia in the 1960s for their naive style of outback art, and now Broken Hill is home to an enormous number of artists of all styles and types. At first glance it seems an unlikely match with the town's outback mining town image, but it is a mix that seems to work and certainly draws in a lot of tourists.

The recent heavy rain that has drenched southern and central Australia has really brightened up the region, we were stunned by the colourful displays of wildflowers on the road here, carpets of flowers where you would normally expect to see only dry scrub.